The Power Saver: A High Efficiency Technique from Germany?

Let's Open Up Those Devices and Learn About Reactive Power

As I cracked open the plastic power saver by unscrewing one hidden screw and applying a bit of force inside, I found a PCB with a fuse, four badly sold in resistors, two green LEDs, and literally a black box which is connected in parallel to the Main's input. After removing the box from the main PCB, I used the transistor tester to find out that the box is actually a high voltage capacitor with a capacity of roughly 2 microfarads and the LEDs are only used to discharge the capacitor once the connection to Main's voltage is interrupted. So, there's definitely no active monitoring happening here, maybe the second metal power saver which is certainly missing a protective conductor since its casing is metal and thus conductive is the real deal inside.

We can once again find a fuse, a led, a mostly empty PCB, and believe it or not, two black boxes which are labeled this time as 5 microfarad capacitor. In a nutshell, these so-called power Savers basically connect a capacitor in parallel to your other appliances but why? Well, in order to present a more practical explanation, let me firstly wire up my auto Transformer in order to create a small AC voltage which is safe to work with for the first test circuit.

I simply connected a 6Vt light bulb to the output of my Transformer and increased the voltage to obviously 6 volts and observe that the current which flows through the bulb follows the same path as the sinusoidal voltage. This behavior is known as a resistive load. The next type of load is inductive, which can be a coil or more popular motors, which basically consist of coils. This time, the current is lagging and follows the voltage with a phase shift of 90° and last but not least we have the capacitive loads which are the opposite of the inductive loads because this time the current is leading with a phase shift of 90° as well but in the other direction.

So, what does that mean for our power consumption? If I connect a common energy meter from Germany in series to the resistive loads which consumes around 21.6 Watts at 6 volts and 3.6 amps we can see that the counting wheel does spin because we are drawing real power which for example creates light and heat, but if I power my inductive load with 24 volts which draws 0.91 amps it should consume around 21.8 watts as well but the counting wheel spins way slower. The reason is that the inductor creates reactive Power by building up and then reducing its magnetic field which lets energy oscillate between the energy producer and load which strains the power grid this is measured in volt-ire reactive not watts and is as we already observed not measurable with the common energy meter and since the capacitor builds up and releases its electrostatic field with AC voltage it also creates reactive Power but opposing to the inductive reactive Power which means that a capacitor in power to an inductive system can reduce the phase shift and thus decrease the overall reactive Power but because the common household energy meter cannot record reactive Power there is no need to decrease it to save money especially not with an uncontrolled not monitoring system like those power Savers.

Let's have a look at what the current consumption of my living room looks like as you can see it looks nothing like what I just clarified. The reason are the nowadays widely used switch mode power supplies which do not draw sinusoidal current this creates current harmonics which thus deform the sinusoidal mains voltage and create another kind of reactive Power so-called distortion reactive Power. The Power Saver AKA capacitor can actually decrease those current armonics but on the other hand simultaneously increased the overall reactive Power by 130 WS on per reactive all in all saving money with the power saver is most likely not possible.

So, let's change Germany to China and forget about this nonsense as always, don't forget to like share and subscribe that would be awesome stay creative and I will see you next time.

WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: enI recently received two so-called power saver devices which I ordered a couple of weeks ago from AliExpress according to the manual the product promises to actively Monitor and improve the power factor optimizers the woodage and current demands and thus reduce my electricity bill up to 35% all of that is possible by simply plugging the gadget into the wall sockets and since pretty much every feedback on their side is positive it has to be true right well in this video Let's Open up those devices learn a bit about reactive power and finally discover the truth of this High efficient technique of Germany let's get started first off I cracked open the plastic power saver by unscrewing one hidden screw and applying a bit of force inside I found a PCB with a fuse four badly sold in resistors two green LEDs and literally a black box which is connected in parallel to the Main's input after removing the box from the main PCB I used the transistor tester to find out that the box is actually a high voltage capacitor with a capacity of roughly 2 microfarads and the LEDs are only used to to discharge the capacitor once the connection to Main's voltage is interrupted so there's definitely no active monitoring happening here maybe the second metal power saver which is certainly missing a protective conductor since its casing is metal and thus conductive is the real deal inside we can once again find a fuse a led a mostly empty PCB and believe it or not two black boxes which are labeled this time as 5 microfarad capacitor so in a nutshell these so-called power Savers basically connect a capacitor in parallel to your other appliances but why well in order to present a more practical explanation let me firstly wire up my auto Transformer in order to create a small ac voltage which is safe to work with for the first test circuit I Simply Connected a 6vt light bulb to the output of my Transformer increased the voltage to obviously 6 Vols RMS and observe that the current which flows through the bul follows the same path as the sinos seral voltage this behavior is known as a resistive load the next type of load is inductive which can be a coil or more popular motors which basically consist of coils this time the current is lagging and follows the voltage with a facee shift of 90° and last but not least we have the capacitive loads which is the opposite of the inductive loads because because this time the current is leading with a face shift of 90° as well but in the other direction so what does that mean for our power consumption if I connect a common energy meter from Germany in serus to the resistive loads which consumes around 21.6 Watts at 6 volts and 3.6 amps we can see that the counting wheel does spin because we are drawing real power which for example creates light and heat but if I power my induct Ive load with 24 volts which draw 0.91 amps it should consume around 21.8 wats as well but the counting wheel spins way slower the reason is that the inductor creates reactive Power by building up and then reducing its magnetic field which lets energy oscillate between the energy producer and load which strains the power grid this is measured in volt ire reactive not watts and is as we already observed not measurable with the common energy meter and since the capacitor builds up and releases its electrostatic field with ac voltage it also creates reactive power but opposing to the inductive reactive power which means that a capacitor in power to an inductive system can reduce the phas shift and thus decrease the overall reactive power but because the common household energy meter cannot record reactive power there is no need to decrease it to save money especially not with an uncontrolled not monitoring system like those power Savers and to give you a more practical example let's have a look at what the current consumption of my living room looks like as you can see it looks nothing like what I just clarified the reason are the nowadays widely used switch mode power supplies which do not draw sinus sodial current this creates current harmonics which thus deform the sinos sodial mains voltage and create another kind of react power soal Distortion reactive power and the power saver AKA capacitor can actually decrease those current armonics but on the other hand simultaneously increased the overall reactive Power by 130 WS on per reactive all in all saving money with the power saver is most likely not possible so let's change Germany to China and forget about this nonsense as always don't forget to like share and subscribe that would be awesome stay creative and I will see you next timeI recently received two so-called power saver devices which I ordered a couple of weeks ago from AliExpress according to the manual the product promises to actively Monitor and improve the power factor optimizers the woodage and current demands and thus reduce my electricity bill up to 35% all of that is possible by simply plugging the gadget into the wall sockets and since pretty much every feedback on their side is positive it has to be true right well in this video Let's Open up those devices learn a bit about reactive power and finally discover the truth of this High efficient technique of Germany let's get started first off I cracked open the plastic power saver by unscrewing one hidden screw and applying a bit of force inside I found a PCB with a fuse four badly sold in resistors two green LEDs and literally a black box which is connected in parallel to the Main's input after removing the box from the main PCB I used the transistor tester to find out that the box is actually a high voltage capacitor with a capacity of roughly 2 microfarads and the LEDs are only used to to discharge the capacitor once the connection to Main's voltage is interrupted so there's definitely no active monitoring happening here maybe the second metal power saver which is certainly missing a protective conductor since its casing is metal and thus conductive is the real deal inside we can once again find a fuse a led a mostly empty PCB and believe it or not two black boxes which are labeled this time as 5 microfarad capacitor so in a nutshell these so-called power Savers basically connect a capacitor in parallel to your other appliances but why well in order to present a more practical explanation let me firstly wire up my auto Transformer in order to create a small ac voltage which is safe to work with for the first test circuit I Simply Connected a 6vt light bulb to the output of my Transformer increased the voltage to obviously 6 Vols RMS and observe that the current which flows through the bul follows the same path as the sinos seral voltage this behavior is known as a resistive load the next type of load is inductive which can be a coil or more popular motors which basically consist of coils this time the current is lagging and follows the voltage with a facee shift of 90° and last but not least we have the capacitive loads which is the opposite of the inductive loads because because this time the current is leading with a face shift of 90° as well but in the other direction so what does that mean for our power consumption if I connect a common energy meter from Germany in serus to the resistive loads which consumes around 21.6 Watts at 6 volts and 3.6 amps we can see that the counting wheel does spin because we are drawing real power which for example creates light and heat but if I power my induct Ive load with 24 volts which draw 0.91 amps it should consume around 21.8 wats as well but the counting wheel spins way slower the reason is that the inductor creates reactive Power by building up and then reducing its magnetic field which lets energy oscillate between the energy producer and load which strains the power grid this is measured in volt ire reactive not watts and is as we already observed not measurable with the common energy meter and since the capacitor builds up and releases its electrostatic field with ac voltage it also creates reactive power but opposing to the inductive reactive power which means that a capacitor in power to an inductive system can reduce the phas shift and thus decrease the overall reactive power but because the common household energy meter cannot record reactive power there is no need to decrease it to save money especially not with an uncontrolled not monitoring system like those power Savers and to give you a more practical example let's have a look at what the current consumption of my living room looks like as you can see it looks nothing like what I just clarified the reason are the nowadays widely used switch mode power supplies which do not draw sinus sodial current this creates current harmonics which thus deform the sinos sodial mains voltage and create another kind of react power soal Distortion reactive power and the power saver AKA capacitor can actually decrease those current armonics but on the other hand simultaneously increased the overall reactive Power by 130 WS on per reactive all in all saving money with the power saver is most likely not possible so let's change Germany to China and forget about this nonsense as always don't forget to like share and subscribe that would be awesome stay creative and I will see you next time